Bone Woman

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"Using a technique leaves residuals. These traces are much fainter than the ones left by cursed spirits, so you need to concentrate and look carefully. Try it, Itadori."

Inside the movie theater where the incident had occurred, Yuji Itadori heard Ren's words and obediently began observing those residuals. Beside him, Ren checked the latest tracking report from the Windows on his phone while continuing to speak to Yuji.

"In combat, you can get by on instinct and talent, but you are not nearly attentive enough when it comes to using cursed energy. In the end, jujutsu sorcerers rely on the combined use of cursed energy and cursed techniques. You do not have an innate technique, so you can only exorcise curses by reinforcing your body with cursed energy."

"In that area, Mei Mei and Kusakabe-sensei are among the best. There is also a second-year student at Kyoto Jujutsu High. You should meet him during the Goodwill Event."

After finally noticing the residuals through careful observation, Yuji nodded in realization. But all those people sounded unfamiliar to him.

"Senpai, can we find that cursed spirit through these residuals?"

Ren turned off his phone screen and motioned for Yuji to follow. "No. After the theater incident, there has been basically no movement. He has hidden himself."

Yuji jogged after him and asked the question in his heart. "Then what are we doing now?"

"Investigating the person involved in this case."

The two left the theater, leaving the police at the crime scene behind them, whispering as they watched them go.

"Chief, why was this case handed completely to people from some department we have never heard of? And the ones handling it are two kids who probably are not even adults."

The middle-aged officer being called chief looked lazy but answered with a very serious attitude. "You saw this case too. The victims' bodies are already outside the realm of normal human work. If you want to make it safely to retirement in this job, remember not to ask too much or meddle too much. Look the other way when you need to."

"Junpei Yoshino."

A medium-haired boy who had been speaking with a fat man with a large belly heard someone call his name. His gloomy eyes shifted over, and he saw two boys wearing uniforms of roughly the same style walking toward him. They seemed about his age.

The pink-haired boy had a clear, simple look on his face. The black-haired boy leading him was completely different. Under the blazing sun, that perfect face carried a faint smile. A black magatama earring swayed lightly by his ear. Sunglasses hid his eyes, but Junpei could feel the other boy watching him.

Most important was that inexplicable pressure. It was more terrifying than facing Mahito.

"What school are you two from?"

Sotomura, the fat teacher sweating nonstop under the heat, questioned Ren and Yuji. Although both of them were wearing uniforms from some school he did not recognize, why did they not feel like proper students at all?

"We have something to discuss with Junpei Yoshino. How about we speak somewhere else?"

The second half was aimed at Junpei. Sotomura felt something was wrong. The person in front of him was unusual, not like a student at all. He was about to step forward and say something, but when the black-haired boy removed his sunglasses and looked at him, he froze involuntarily.

"O-okay."

After Junpei answered, Ren turned and motioned for him to follow. What happened next was not what Junpei had imagined. They did not drag him to some hidden place and interrogate him. Instead, the three of them walked along a riverbank. There were few people along the route, though it was not exactly remote.

"My name is Ren Kamishiro. Junpei Yoshino, you were at the movie theater at two-thirty in the afternoon two days ago, weren't you? Three high school students died there, and they were from the same school as you."

Ren walked slightly ahead, speaking as if they were chatting casually. "I know you are not the killer. I came mainly to ask whether, in the theater that day, you saw a stitched-face 'person.'"

Junpei lowered his face slightly, letting the long hair on the right side cover most of it. His voice stayed steady. "No. I did not finish the movie that day. I left very soon."

Ren gave him a thoughtful glance but did not intend to expose the lie. He only continued speaking on his own. "That guy is called Mahito. He is a cursed spirit that deserves to be cut to pieces ten thousand times over and still would not be punished enough. To him, humans are only toys. If he is in a good mood, he may play with you like someone watching ants, maybe even drop a few toys beside the anthill to see how the ants react."

"But..."

At that point, his voice turned cold. "Most of the time, the way he treats ants is to crush them without caring. Maybe his goal is only to see how much flesh is under the shell. Or to watch what happens when an ant loses all its legs. Or to pour boiling water into the nest just to see how the colony responds."

Ren stopped, forcing the other two to stop as well. He turned and looked at Junpei. "For him, good and evil are laughable. You cannot apply our standards of judgment to something that is fundamentally not human. But one thing is certain. He has to die."

Yuji, who was hearing about Mahito for the first time, fell silent beside them. He thought of the three bizarre corpses in the theater. Senpai had said they had once been living people. They were transformed by the effect of Mahito's technique, and that transformation could not be reversed.

Beep.

Ren took out his phone. When he saw the message he had received, his expression turned cold. "Itadori, you talk with him first. The Windows found traces of a large group of transfigured humans. I will go take care of it. Message me if anything urgent happens. Be careful."

The location where the transfigured humans were found was not far, so Ren planned to go and take a look. At the same time, he wanted to see whether Mahito would choose to attack Yuji while Ren was away and Yuji was with Junpei.

With Yuji's natural advantage against him, as long as Mahito could not kill him instantly on contact, the end would be Mahito's death.

Yuji watched Ren leave, completely confused. Then he looked at Junpei and scratched his head. "Um, I am Yuji Itadori."

Underground drainage system.

Ren walked through the place with a look of disgust. It was not flooded with sewage and swarming insects, but there was always a strange smell.

"Is this guy a rat? Why does he keep crawling into sewers?"

Before long, Ren heard some unusual movement ahead. After turning a corner, he saw several strangely shaped transfigured humans wandering there.

The residuals of cursed energy were already extremely faint. Ren sighed, drew Onikiri, and entered the Timeless State, sending all those transfigured humans into release. His search of the surroundings found no other traces.

There was no message from Yuji either. Ren circled the area again. Most of the transfigured humans were in the winding sewer tunnels, and none were difficult to deal with. But they had been altered by Mahito too long ago. Even Ren's reversal could not return their time far enough to restore them.

All he could do was release them in an instant.

After leaving the sewer, Ren took a long breath of fresh air, then contacted Yuji and asked where he was.

"Hm? You went to eat at someone's house?"

The mission was not finished, yet this kid had gone to the Yoshino home for dinner. Fine. Ren would go take a look. In the original path, Mahito was supposed to attack Junpei's family too. Although he had now hidden himself, his movements had already deviated from the original track. Ren could not even determine whether Mahito had escaped the area.

"Sigh. Next time Gojo-sensei is free, I really should call him along. The moment Mahito shows even a trace, Gojo can teleport straight to his face. Let's see how he hides then."

When Ren reached the Yoshino home and rang the doorbell, the one who opened it was a beautiful, fashionable woman whose appearance somewhat resembled Junpei's. Seeing Ren, she smiled and welcomed him in. "You must be the senpai Itadori mentioned. I am Junpei's mother, Nagi Yoshino. Please come in."

After bowing politely, Ren changed shoes at the entrance and entered the warm home. Yuji and Junpei were sitting at the dining table. When Yuji saw Ren, he smiled and greeted him. "Senpai, you are back."

Junpei was filled with speechlessness. He had only chatted with Yuji for a while and unexpectedly discovered that they got along very well. 'If only I had met him earlier...'

Then his mother happened to pass by, saw the two of them, and mistook Yuji for his friend. After hearing her invitation, Yuji happily accepted. Somehow, he ended up at their home and even managed to chat smoothly with his mother.

'I am kind of jealous of that personality.'

Thinking that, Junpei looked toward the black-haired boy named Ren Kamishiro. He looked polite and modest, with the kind of appearance that would make girls all over school chase after him. According to Yuji, this senpai was extremely strong too. He seemed to belong to a completely different world from Junpei.

After thanking Nagi Yoshino for her praise and her invitation, Ren took a seat as well and listened to Yuji and Nagi continue their cheerful conversation.

As for the small incident earlier, Yuji never doubted whether Ren could solve it. He had already gained a general understanding of this senpai's strength. Who would have thought that only one grade of difference could feel like a whole dimension? And apparently there was another second-year senpai he had not met yet who was terrifying too.

"Thank you for having us, ma'am!"

Nagi Yoshino waved happily. "Not at all. It is good for Junpei to have friends like you. Come visit again."

After leaving the Yoshino home, Yuji paused and said, "Senpai, Junpei Yoshino is involved in this case too. Won't Mahito target him?"

Ren was typing something on his phone. Without stopping, he answered, "Not won't. Already has. He must have had contact with Mahito before. Whether Mahito appears again afterward is another question. I already notified the people behind us to monitor the area around the Yoshino home closely. For now, we find a hotel nearby and stay there. We will see whether the fish is hiding or already ran."

"Geto, this is so boring. I finally found a toy that was a little fun, and someone cut in before I could play with him. Do you have any way to deal with that person?"

Mahito lay over a rooftop railing, more than half his body almost hanging off the edge. His face was utterly unconcerned. Beside him, Suguru Geto watched the night gradually spread and answered simply, "No. Although we can obtain information about his technique, the technique itself is unprecedented. More specific intelligence can only be obtained in an all-out battle. You had better not appear in front of him. Based on the information we have, killing you would not take him any time."

"So annoying!"

Mahito lifted his head and complained beneath the gentle moonlight that fell equally on everything. "Humans... Some of them are more monstrous than monsters. They are just ugly animals, so why?"

Geto ignored his words and changed the subject, telling him the next step of the plan. "We are preparing the activation conditions for that plan anyway. Tomorrow, find a place to release the Bone Woman. While it gathers cursed blood, we can use the opportunity to test him again."

A bright smile appeared on Mahito's face. "Let me choose the location. I want to play a little more before we leave."

The night passed without incident. The personnel continuously monitoring the Yoshino home sent no warnings either.

Ren was almost convinced Mahito had run far away when he received an emergency message: a Curtain had been detected at Kanagawa Prefectural Satozakura High School. Not only had transfigured humans appeared, the report said that hundreds were already dead.

Ren called Yuji and had him go to Satozakura High with Ijichi. He used his technique and rushed directly toward the destination. Cars and pedestrians on the road froze in place as Ren moved through the cracks of time, racing all the way toward Satozakura High until he reached his limit. Then he used technique reversal to restore his cursed energy.

He was only a short distance away, so Ren did not wait for his technique to recover completely. With cursed energy reinforcing his body, he was not slow. After quickly entering the school, he went straight toward the auditorium.

When he pushed open the doors, what he saw was a hell on earth.

Some kind of award ceremony had originally been held here today, and plenty of people had gathered. Now there was not a single living person left. Unless those transfigured humans still counted as human.

Broken bodies covered the floor. Their faces all held the same fear, despair, and other expressions. Faces were scattered throughout the auditorium, staring blankly into empty space. Strangely, there was not much blood around those corpses.

Ren paid no attention to the transfigured humans. The moment he entered the auditorium, his gaze was nailed to the figure in the center of the bodies.

"Special Grade cursed spirit... Are they getting cheaper these days?"

It was a humanoid cursed spirit. When Ren came in, it was crouched in front of a corpse, digging at something with both hands. Hearing Ren's footsteps, it turned around. Its face was a skull, with only a little flesh remaining on it.

It strangely drew the spine it had pulled from the corpse into the arm where some flesh still clung. Then, as its upper and lower jaws clattered in something like a sneering laugh, countless eerie bone spikes bloomed from its body.

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